No Man’s Sky Guide: Tips and Tricks for Beginners

Fix Your Scanner – The very first thing you should do in No Man’s Sky is fix your scanner. To do this, head to your Multi-tool tab in your inventory menu, and then hover over the scanner to see the list of minerals you need to repair it. This is going to come in very handy as you’ll be able to scan your local environments to see what’s in the area.

Hoard the Plutonium – Plutonium is a pretty rare mineral, so you’ll want to hoard as much of it as you can. Look out for the red crystals on the ground, then mine it with your Multi-tool. I recommend saving this solely for fueling your Launch Thrusters, and use the other common minerals for your the rest of your tech.

Actually, Hoard All the Red Icon Resources – When you scan the environment, you’ll find red icons with a lightning bolt in the middle. These are isotopes that can be used to charge up your technology. You’ll find that your life support tends to run low very quickly during the beginning of the game, so make sure you have a healthy supply of isotopes in No Man’s Sky.

Sell Trade Commodities – Over the course of the game, you’ll come across trade commodities that are marked with a green icon in your menu. Hover over the items and you’ll see it labeled as a ‘trade commodity.’ If you find a trade terminal, you can sell these off for a good supply of credits.

Name Your Discoveries – Naming your discoveries in No Man’s Sky can be very helpful, even if you’re not enthralled by the idea of leaving your mark on this universe. Every time you discover a new star system, planet, or building structure, be sure to name and upload your discovery to the server to get some easy credits.

Be Careful of the Sentinels – The Sentinels will home in on your position if you’re mining resources a little too quickly. When this happens, stop whatever you’re doing and wait for the Sentinel to go away. The stars indicator in the top right corner of your screen will flash. Wait till it stops flashing before continuing whatever you were doing.

Keep an Eye on Life Support – Make sure to keep your life support meter high at all times. You can see the meter in the bottom left corner of your screen, and you will get periodic warnings when it starts to get low. Be sure to keep it charged up with Carbon and Thamium9 under the Exosuit tab in your menu.

Interact With Other Ships – Whenever you come across buildings and structures in No Man’s Sky, there’s also a chance you’ll see other ships parked there. If you hang around a large trading depot long enough, other ships might fly in too. Interact with them to talk to the traders, and you’ll have the options to buy/sell your cargo, or even make an offer to purchase their ship.

Enter All the Buildings You See – Make sure to enter every single building you see in this game. You might get new blueprints for your Multi-tool, Exosuit, and your ship. There will usually be cargo boxes lying around the rooms too, and you can loot these for free resources.

Check the Question Mark Icons – Sometimes, you might come across green question mark icons on your screen. I highly recommend checking these out, even if it takes you out of your way. During my first hour with the game, I cam across the large diamond-shaped monolith on a planet, and it allowed me to interact with a bunch of knowledge stones that taught me alien words. In short, explore and investigate everything.

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Fix Your Scanner

The very first thing you should do in No Man's Sky is fix your scanner. To do this, head to your Multi-tool tab in your inventory menu, and then hover over the scanner to see the list of minerals you need to repair it. This is going to come in very handy as you'll be able to scan your local environments to see what's in the area.